Breathless

source: Breathless

Breathless

I love the character Gere portrayed so flawlessly - Jesse's sheer intensity is a joy to behold. I really enjoyed the music throughout the film also, and the way it captures the varying moods so well. Kaprisky does a good job with her character as well - the exotic Frenchwoman Monica, torn between her plans for her life and her moth-to-the-flame attraction to the exuberant, unstoppable Jesse. This film has just had a run on EPIX on demand and I must have seen it six or seven times - it's one of my all-time favorites: those few, special films that, although I can almost speak the dialogue in unison with the characters, are still the ones I reach for and watch again and again.

I haven't seen the original version, so I can't say how it compares to this remake. What I can say is that is a real obnoxious movie. Gere's character is so annoying, so loud, that I only kept watching to the very end in hopes I would see him die a painful and bloody death. We learn little to nothing about what motivates this guy, why he is the way he is, etc. I was also at a loss as to why his French girlfriend (who is an equally murky character) was so attracted to this loser. The only interesting thing about the entire production is the directorial style. Though made before "Miami Vice", the sleek look and atmosphere strongly resembles that of the TV show - it can be seen as a taste of the style that was to come.

To me Richard Gere carried the movie--he managed to make Jesse LuJak a character both repulsive and likeable. LuJak is a petty criminal, car-thief and then a murderer, not very bright (he reads comic books and seems to model himself on The Silver Surfer). LuJak moves in a world of cheap motels and seedy bars, and has a torrid and obviously doomed affair with an art student. But in the end he comes off as somehow admirable--we believe that he loves the Kapinsky character, that he might even be a good father to her child, given the chance. LuJak comes mighty near what I would call a tragic hero--flaws and all. As for the look of the movie, I find that equally well done--just for example, at one point the hero and heroine make love in torrid red lights, with a black-and white 30s movie in the background, also dealing with doomed lovers. The juxtaposed images were very nicely handled. Both thumbs up!

I have never seen a film with so many terrific songs used to such great effect. American critics stupidly trashed this movie when it first came out, saying it desecrated the memory of the French original. Several French critics disagreed and named this remake one of the top ten films of the year. 10/10

"Breathless" is an unheralded '80s remake of Godard's revolutionary 1960 flick. In this one, Richard Gere plays the Belmondo role as a dimwitted yet charismatic car-thief who accidentally (or not?) kills a policeman during a traffic stop and goes on the run. He hooks up with a girl - Valerie Kaprisky playing a French girl in America, just as Jean Seberg played an American girl in France - and they go on the run together. Nowadays, "Breathless" is remembered mostly, if it is remembered at all, for Kaprisky's * scenes. Gere is hard to swallow in the lead role; he just seems like an obnoxious idiot. We don't get into his head at all. Nor do we really understand Kaprisky's motivations. She seems too smart to do what she does, whereas Gere seems too stupid.